Joseph Louwagie was born in 1946, the third of six siblings to Marie (Blomme) Louwagie and Gerard Louwagie, who farmed south of Green Valley. Girard wanted Joe to take over the farm after college, but Joe had his heart set on becoming an attorney like family friend, Bob Runchey, and turned down his dad’s offer.

Joe married his fiancé, Jo Schmitz, in Tracy, on June 7, 1968. He planned to attend the University of North Dakota Law School, but the local Draft Board did not give him an additional educational deferment. When Joe learned he would be drafted that August, he enlisted in the Army for three years with further training in Officer Candidate School.

He had a plan to become an Army officer, but did not realize that a prior incident would get in the way.

“Before I got in the service, I had a couple accidents. I hurt my lower back in one of them. Before they took me, I let the Army know I had hurt my back. They sent me to St. Paul for a physical. I met with a doctor who said, ‘Do you have any problems?’ I said, ‘I hurt my back a couple weeks ago in an accident and had some back pain.’ He asked, ‘Is that all?’ I replied, ‘Yeah.’ He said, ‘Next.’ That was my physical.”

The Army sent Joe east to begin his military training cycle.

“I went through Basic Training and AIT (Advanced Infantry Training) Infantry at Fort Dix, New Jersey before I transferred down to Fort Benning, Georgia for Officer Candidate School.

Officer Candidate School was very rigorous training, so it was not unusual for candidates to wash out for failing to meet training standards. Joe explained that those who washed out received credit for the training they had completed.

“People who got paneled out because they didn’t make the grade after eight weeks made E-5 (sergeant); 12 weeks made E-5/E-6 (staff sergeant); and 18weeks made E-6/E-7 (sergeant first class). I went through 22 weeks and signed up for Airborne Special Forces, thinking if I got extra training in this country, then I wouldn’t have to go to Vietnam for another six months.”

But qualification for Airborne Special Forces training required a more rigorous physical.

“They sent me for a physical which included an X-ray that showed I had a fractured back. I was told by the doctor that there was no way you can be commissioned as an Army officer with the back problems I had.”

There would be no officer’s commission in Joe’s future, so he reconsidered his enlistment.

“I said, ‘Why am I signing up for another year in the military?’ and I notified them I was dropping off OCS. Well, the Army doesn’t like quitters so they busted me to Private First Class (Joe chuckled) and put me in Camp Alpha for ten days. I had a short two weeks at home and then shipped to Vietnam as a Private First Class.”

Joe recalled that flight into the unknown in late June 1969.

“They gave me a ticket and I picked up a plane in Minneapolis. It was a commercial plane, but it was just filled with GIs going over there. They flew me to Tan Son Nhut Air Base in Saigon.”

He remembered his thoughts as his flight touched down in Vietnam.

“What the hell am I doing here? That’s your impression. You know you are going in the field.”

Life accelerated quickly for this newly-arrived soldier.

“I remember being taken from Tan Son Nhut. I met a deuce and a half, a truck which would seat 15 to 20 people in the back, and they took us from there to Di An, (Pronounced Ze’on) which was the headquarters of the 1st Division. The first five days they took us on several patrols around Di An just so you could get the experience of being out with the unit. I was assigned to Alpha Company, 2nd (Battalion) of the 18th (Infantry Regiment).”

Joe’s new unit flew him by helicopter to the base camp from which his infantry company was operating.

“I remember flying into Camp Alpha and looking down and seeing all the soldiers walking around. They’re all covered with red dust from being out in the field. It was just red dirt. So, I was impressed by everyone looking red when we flew in.”

Joe participated in his first combat patrol within a couple days.

“They put us in choppers and they took us down along a tributary to the Saigon River. We jumped out of the chopper. I was carrying (machine gun) ammo for a guy. I dropped into the rice paddy and the water was up to my neck. (Joe chuckled) So, here I am trying to hump with all that damn weight on my back, carrying ammo for this guy. We didn’t see anything that day, but that night we had to set an ambush in case the NVA (North Vietnamese Army) were coming in that area. They put us on a berm where we had to sleep head-to-foot, head-to-foot. That next morning I woke up with seven leeches on my body. I saw some dead Vietnamese, NVA bodies, from fighting before us. I don’t know what killed them. It was probably gunships, but in the heat of Vietnam, a body bloated quite rapidly.”

Joe had been in-country one week.

Please visit our new exhibit, The Vietnam War and Lyon County, at the Lyon County Museum to learn more about the experiences of our area Vietnam veterans.